Transport to medieval times this month
Witches by their cauldrons, knights jousting for the princesses affection and jesters entertaining the crowd.
When you walk into Waldorf School on March 26, you will be transported to another world.
The Hamilton school’s annual Medieval Carnival returns for its 21st year, pulling out all the stops.
The Rototuna school will be transformed into a medieval village on Sunday, March 26.
Cambridge man Mark Tustian is a fletcher for Wulfing Household, a medieval archery group that will be at the carnival.
‘‘The have-a-go archery will be running throughout the day, we try to get at least two main archery demonstrations as the Wulfings and all the other archery re-enactors get to shoot at the Romans as enemies for a change,’’ he laughed.
‘‘The Romans form up their famous shield formations as we batter them with arrows before they charge us, sometimes we archers win and sometimes we lose.’’
He said they will be using combat blunted arrows which have rubber tips on the end for safety, but can still be dangerous as they can be used to hunt birds.
But the additional safety feature was the wooden arrow shaft wrapped in tape, which means if the arrow breaks the broken arrow doesn’t become a flying splinter.
‘‘This year most of my work done on the combat blunts was done prior to Waldorf, as I made a load of arrows for Cambridge Armistice back in November 2016,’’ he said.
He said the event was getting bigger and bigger every year, and that last year space was opened up for camping.
‘‘The Living History people will camp their all weekend using the equipment of their time period.
‘‘Some have museum of historical accuracy and love to talk to the public about what they’re doing and why, so feel free to ask them if you visit,’’ Tustian said.
And don’t forget to stop by the blacksmiths or traders, they may point you in the right direction for wooden sword making. The witches and wizards inside their potion house can help you construct your own magic wand.
Students from the school will be dressed in medieval garb and visitors are welcome to do the same.